What Makes A Friend?

Today I have decided that I am not a good friend.   At least not by the standards of the day. 

I don't call once a day, week, or month, or even year.    I don't write letters, at least not the old-timey, conventional put-a-stamp-on-it letter.    Although I do send cards when I can afford them.   I might as well cut down a tree for the price of what they cost now a days. 

I do not Tweet on Twitter even though I have an account.    Nor do I  text message on my cell phone.    (This will most likely change once Steve goes back to Afghanistan since I will most likely have a new cell phone and most importantly...have the bucks to do it with.) 

I do not play well with others on Facebook.   I'm sincerely sorry for that.

I would LOVE to take the time to play "Farm" or what-ever-the-heck it's called.

I would like to play "Mafia", too.  (Now THAT is something that my personality would enjoy!)

I would like to help you bake, or cook, or whatever it is that you want me to do in your kitchen, but shoot!, I don't even like to do that FOR REAL in my own kitchen!   Just ask Steve! 

Honestly, I would love to help you build your farm, or bump-off someone, or bake something pretend with you, or go to lunch with you at a fancy Cybercafe, or find out which mass murderer I resemble.

Really!  It would be fun!

 And I would love to take a quiz to find out if my favorite color red means that I'm a sexed-up psycho killer who looks like Captain Jean Luc Picard in drag who loves kittens but can't express himself because he really wishes he were Spock who likes the number 0 BECAUSE IT UNLOCKS THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE TO WHERE ALL OF THE BEST KITTENS ARE HELD BY SOME COSMIC STAR RAIDER WHO'S FAVORITE COLOR IS RED!!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!  (Le Pant!   Le Breathe!   Le Heave!   Le Whew!)  Sorry for raising my voice. 

Calming back down now...

...I do e-mail.   Well, in the kind of if-you-send-it-I'll-send-it-back/on e-mail.   And I do actually write personal e-mails...occasionally.

I'm sorry.   Really I am.    It would seem that I just don't play well with others.   Of course, in my heart I know that is not true, or else I wouldn't have so many friends strung out all over creation.     Actually,  I play too well with others.   I LOVE TO PLAY!!!    I do-I do-I do!!!   And I think that's where some of the problem lies.

Having soooo many friends all over the world, well, makes me miss them terribly.   And not being able to be with them for years on end is just...painful.    So, I feel that if I cannot be WITH you, to share the same SPACE with you, to TOUCH you and to just to BE, is empty and void of any real life.  

But I know that is not true.   

I know that's not true when my friend take the time to send me anything through e-mail.   My face and eyes light up when I see their name in my "mail-box".   Just seeing their name sends an endorphin rush through my body, that reminds me of THEM and the times we have shared together.

And for the moment, even though they are not here and I cannot touch them, we're together again, even if only for a few moments.

Maybe that's why I've been invited to play "Farm" and "Mafia" and all of the other goofy FUN things on Facebook.

Maybe that's why I'll be glad to get the Text Package on my next cell phone so I can jump into Tweeting and talking with my thumbs!  (I already talk with my hands...)  

Maybe that's why I need to make the time to play more with all of my friends out in Cyberspace.

Because it's about them...not me.   

It's not that I don't know that I'm not the center OF the Universe, it's that I haven't known that I truly am a needed player IN the Universe.  

Today I have decided that I am a good friend and need to get back into the world.   Are you really ready for this?   Because, I do like the color red...

Love and Hugs,

Patti 

Does Anybody Have Superwoman's E-mail Addy?

What's up with all of these unbelievable super women who have time and energy to be a wife, mother, teacher, cook, baker, Mary Poppins, vet, nurse, teach Sunday School, get sick and are still able to do full blown, crazy-awesome blog-sites all at the same flippin' time?  

I mean, come on!

       

Now, I have been known to look and act like Superwoman from time-to-time.   Key words here: "time-to-time".  

Especially when I was younger and every now and then when I feel really, REALLY good, like in the summertime when the joint-sap was freely moving through my body.   

(Think of The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, squeaking out, "Oy-can!  Oy-can!")

But today I am sick.  Perhaps I should say, still sick.   

Or even better yet, I was getting better until I just HAD to go out into the freshly powdered woods to take photographs of the Snow White, Wooded Beauty that was calling to me like a Siren's song. 

      Maybe I should have told the snowy old witch to shut up. 

    SHE started it all...    

...because  I also went snow sledding later that same day with my Grizz and with the neighbors and their kids.  "Oh I'll just go and take pics of the kids",  I said.   "I'll be just fine!"   

Umm-hmm.

Within 20 minutes I couldn't feel my nose or move my shutter-finger to snap shots, as my hands were froze to the camera; leaving me unable to deal with the snot-sicles forming into Walrus tusks protruding over my upper lip.

But my Grizzly husband was just fine and ready to go!

(Here is Grizz and Cade right before going down the BIG hill, as opposed to the Bunny Hill.  More on that in a bit.)

After going to the vehicle and warming up, I was all better, and sure that I could go back out to play.   Which I did at the giggling requests of our neighbors kids.    I mean, who could resist little Kali's, "Pweese Patti.  PWEEEEESE!"

You try to resist THAT face and Elmer Fuddish accent! 

(This was at their house while getting ready to load up to go.) 

 My incredibly, amazingly patient husband agreed to help me go UP the Bunny Hill (I can hear you laughing!) so I could once again enjoy the sledding part of my childhood. 

He deserves medals and parades. 

I should be locked away so I don't harm myself or others.

I only fell down four times trying to get to a point where I could slide down the hill.   It was on that fourth fall when I decided to just roll over into the sled-thing and enjoy whatever ride awaited me. 

 

Anything was fine at this point.

 

Just for the Record: not all of "my" poofy-girth is me.  A good part is layers of clothing. 

 

 

 

There. 

I feel better and self-defended.

 
 

WHEEEEEEEE!!!!!  I'M QUEEN OF THE BUNNY HILL!!!!!"

                                                             

Not much longer after I got to the bottom of the hill, peeled myself away from the sled-thing, and hauled my Arctic-A** to the vehicle, and my Mighty Grizzter took me home to thaw out and warm up.

Chilled-to-the-bone doesn't quite describe my condition.    

But now, for some odd reason, I felt much worse than before
I had succumbed to the Siren Call of the Snow White Woods and her evil twin, Hell Hill.  

And all I could think of is how very, very much I would like some homemade soup.   ANY kind would do.

But when you're sick...

...even IF it's from daring to enjoy a snatch of fun and glory in the snow...

...you wish that your mom would just bring you a piping hot bowl of noodley love from the stove. (This is, of course, stock footage of some other mom's homemade chicken noodle soup.)

Yeah, well, welcome to MY world.   You know the one where you have to sometimes make your own noodley love?


 



     

Mmm-Mmm-mine looks like this.......  

 At least it was hot and tasted like chicken noodle soup.   

Minus the lovin'.  

When you're not really Superwoman and can barely sled down The Bunny Hill in a single bound, but you still are able to get back to home where the stove, pan, and can opener are, ehh, it's okay.   It's better than okay, actually.

And who needs Superwoman anyway.   

When you are married to Superman.

Hugs From Under The Blankets,

Patti    

         

What A Sweet Valentines Day!

Another Valentines Day has come and will soon be just another memory to press between the pages of my mind, as Elvis sang so well.   This was our 32nd Valentines Day.  And out of all of them, this one is noticeably different.   Not because of what was or wasn't exchanged, but because of the news my husband got just a few days ago.   The news of him deploying for his third tour of duty: Afghanistan again.

This, and a very intense, vivid dream that I had but two days before the news came, helped the force of that news and it's impact upon us.   It wasn't scary.  It carried no fear.   Been here and done this so many times now that it's almost commonplace to say "Good-bye" every other year.   

Yet, my already tender husband, is even more so this time.   I happen to be fighting an upper respiratory infection with all of the sneezing, etc. that goes with it, but even that doesn't explain the "extra" that is happening around the both of us, surrounding us, moving us, touching us, touching one another.  

How do I begin to explain the love that we have for one another after all of these years together?   And how can I ever begin to try to explain the noticeable difference that has enveloped us?    Obviously, the Lord is even now beginning to prepare us for this next separation and is ever so gently reminding us how much we enjoy the simple joys of our life together.

So for our simple Valentines Day today, as so many before, we did just the normal things of life: we went grocery shopping.   I know.   How romantic!   *giggle!*   But it's just those everyday simple things that we share together that I love so very, very much.   Most years we have not had the money to do or to get something for one another.   So when we are able to, it's just all the more meaningful.    But like I said, it's different this time.

I would like to share a photo of my Valentines Day with you.  The pink tulips are from my Grizz (hubby's nickname.)   And the mixed bouquet of red tulips are from my best friend, Martha.   I'm a sucker for flowers, but tulips are my most favorite to get as soon as they show up in the stores. 

Also, Grizz gave me a necklace that I've wanted for months and months!   It says, "by grace alone" on a silver disk.  And I gave my Grizzter a manly necklace that is a silver shield with a cross cut-out in the middle of it, and it simply says, "God's Soldier".  You can see both items at http://store.dayspring-store.com/jewelry.html .

Thank you for letting me share my day with you.   I hope that your V-Day was a good one, too!

With Love,

Patti

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This...

I really can't believe that I have actually started a blog.   And to try to find a point to begin....oh my.

Okay.   "Let's start at the very beginning.   That's a very good place to start."   Or so sang Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".   If I knew where the beginning was, believe me, I would start there!   But it has been so many years since I have written anything and actually submitted it for publishing...sigh!...I feel very out of practice.  And honestly, humbled by the truly awesome blogs out there. 

Now, don't go Google-ing my name on any books; for they're all piled in another room waiting for money to fall from the heavens so I might publish one or two.   My main writings have been commentaries that I would write for several of the state newspapers in Arizona back in the '90's.   I told you it's been awhile.   

It was just a 'natural' thing for me to do as co-pastor with my husband, of the little church we pastored during those years of thin-living.   I never drew a paycheck for writing, but I certainly was well compensated by the Lord for being obedient to sit and write.

Which, gulp!, brings me right back to why I'm here, blogging (dear God!) for the first time; obedience, once again, to sit and write.   

First and foremost I'm stepping out in bare, butt-naked, obedience.  Secondly, and just as meaningful to me, I'm stepping out because of the loving, nagging of my best friends telling me that I have things that others need to hear.   

Everyone has a story to tell, right?   It's okay.  You may roll your eyes as you wonder, "What on earth could another woman have to say that I have not already heard."   Can't blame you.   

But maybe over the months as I share things like how I was given 6 months to live after finding late stage 3 ovarian cancer, there will be something there that you need.   And by the way, that death diagnosis will be 12 years ago this coming May.

Or perhaps the story of my husband's suicide, death, seeing Jesus, and coming back to life, and our amazing journey might grab your attention.   

Then there are the stories of ministry and experiencing things that would make your hair fall out after hearing the places we've been and the things we've seen.

Now before I end this, my very first entry, I must warn you: I am the owner of a very warped sense of humor.  I'm the kind of person that sees humor when everyone else is crying their eyes out.   If Gary Larson would come back and make a new Far Side and call it something like, The Way Darker Side of The Far Side, that's where my humor hangs out, along with talking cows and sheep who smoke.

Life is way too funny not to laugh as you go through it.   And it's sure much cheaper than therapy.

So!   I guess this has been my beginning.   I will try to learn what to do technically so that I might get on here as often as I can, and let my mind out to play amongst all of you.   

Just remember: you've been warned!  

Much Love and Laughter,

Patti